July 4, 1976: A call for justice and equality
July 4, 1976. North Philadelphia, early morning. Buses have been rolling in since dawn, many driving overnight, originating in the Twin Cities, Chicago, Michigan, Kentucky, DC, New Haven, New York, Boston.
The July Fourth Coalition (J4C) Counter Bicentennial demonstration was about to start. The Coalition included the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, African People’s Socialist Party, American Indian Movement, Twin Cities Women’s Union, the Palestinian, Puerto Rican and Native American Solidarity Committees, American Friends Service Committee, City Council of Churches, Bay Area Gay Liberation, health care workers, students — the list represented many progressive, peace and left groups across the country.
I spent five months in the Philadelphia office of J4C, working the phones, fielding press inquiries, attending endless meetings. I also had to locate portable toilets for the event. One contractor cancelled his contract out of concern that his loos would be damaged in the alleged revolutionary violence he anticipated.
Two unrelated situations influenced our organizing work: the emergence of Legionnaires’ disease, a fatal respiratory disease that sickened attendees at a conference in Philadelphia; and the fear-mongering statements by then-mayor Frank Rizzo that hordes of wild-eyed revolutionaries were on their way to trash the city.
Consequently, tourists avoided coming to the City of Brotherly Love, throngs that would have swelled the ranks of President Gerald Ford’s planned events at Independence Hall. More than 50,000 people marched through North Philadelphia to Fairmount Park in numbers surpassing the Independence Hall gathering.
The unifying slogan for J4C was “For a Bicentennial Without Colonies,” a reference to the (still) ambiguous status of the island of Puerto Rico. Other slogans included “Health Care for All,” “Sovereignty for Native People,” “For Jobs and a Decent Standard of Living,” and “Four Hundred Years of Racism and Hate, What’s There to Celebrate.”
Our political and social landscape had changed dramatically since 1976. There’ve been victories, some progress toward our goals of a more perfect union, justice and rights for all. Yet truly disheartening is the rise of Christian nationalism, immigration raids, the outright, venomous racist language that passes for public discourse, the Dobbs decision… this list is also long, and, sadly, growing.
Much has been accomplished over the past 50 years, but much needs to be done. La lucha continua.
Joan E. Deely
Leverett